It really doesn’t. Lots of little gaming going on. Will touch upon them. 1) LOTRO revisted: While I am trying to organize friends to go through the trial, nothing concrete is set up although a little interest and a couply people hopping on Brandywine. I said this before and I will say it again – the fact…
Why Can’t We Be Friends?
I have been away for a week for work – and the inevitable happened. I ran into an old friend, conversation ensues, and WoW comes up. He plays it too. We chat about raiding, levelling, guilds, etc and the topic shifts to gaming together on the ultimate cruise ship. Things are starting to sound fun,…
99 Red Balloons
This is my 99th post. I was going to wait and do something for the Centennial Post, but after my Montreal Canadiens had a tragic end to their 100th season, and I lost a pretty daring, yet silly bet around it, I think the 100 mark is one of tradgedy, and curses. Not luck and prosperity….
Whitesnake
Here I go again on my own. Help me like Lord of the Rings Online. I don’t need long winded posts epousing how good the game is. You probably, if playing the game, don’t feel like you need to explain why it is so good. I don’t need convincing by any means. I need company….
Talent > Experience > Education > . . . Ego?
A little snippet about game design from Blizzards almightly Lead Game Designer, Ghostcrawler. “Do you know how many professional game designers I know who were trained as game designers? Zero. I imagine that will change over time though. This is, happily, one of the few industries where talent > experience > education. “ Â One of…
Gloating I Will Soon Regret
I just received an email invite to a closed, alpha stage MMO beta test. I love beta testing. I love seeing a game grow from crap to less-crap-yet-not-ready-for-release-but-released-anyhow. I love interacting with devs on their life’s work (pre crunch time, of course. Once they hit the crunch they all become crabby). I love going into…
Breaking News, here, FIRST!
Okay, that’s a lie. I always prefer to be fashionably late. I know the Jeff Kaplan interview at GDC is very old news. While I had a lot of thought about it at the time, it was mostly the rehash of the same old stuff already out there, and not until I made it into…
Cwofee Twolk
I feel so verklempt. “Let’s go for a coffee” is part of our society. Typically you pick either a greasy spoon, or some fancy overpriced brand variety, and go, sit, drink coffee, and chit chat with a friend (or friends) for a few hours. It could be a date, or just a catch up session…
A New Favorite Data Blog
While navigating the great interwebs of blogs and fansites I came accross this little gem. Simply put, it is a data mining site for WoW. I love data, and in our grand world of MMO secrecy, more data is always good. Since it is straight from the Armory you would have to believe it carries…
Why WAR, Why?
I have an assignment and had to resub to Warhammer. I do a little freelance writing on the side for MMO magazines, and have done some prior levelling guides for the game. Another one came accross my desk, and with the desire to check out what has changed in the game here was the perfect…
I hate you(r) Blog(ger)
When I signed up for blogging, I signed up for drama. I was tired of trolling the WoW General boards for days on end to stick it to those imbeciles, so now I am looking for another outlet. Tesh, my good friend made a post of awards in the newest blog-induced tag scheme that has…
10 Day Trials – What not to do!
Besides topics covered in this semi-rant post previously, I will give one, absolutely cardinal rule on how you will GUARANTEE I will not trial your game. Do not ask me for my Credit Card information. A 10 day trial is for me to see if I like your game, not tether me to a possible…
Happy Birthday, EQ
EQ was my first MMO girlfriend. She was a bit cranky, and demanding on my time, but looking back I wouldn’t change a thing (looking forward is another matter). Those sweet, sweet evenings spent together shaped my gaming expectations and experiences. It is true that you never forget your first. EQ Nostalgia after the break….
UI Add-ons are bad?
Vacation was nice, thank you for asking. Coming home from vacation is always a bad experience. The plane feels a bit more cramped and the voicemail and email inboxes are a lot more full. I actually tried working through my vacation, dilligently keeping up on my inbox every morning. IHASLAW #1 – for every email you…
I’m on Vacation
Forgot to pop this up last week – I am away on vacation so won’t be checking here for the week. You know, just in case you missed me and stuff. Have a great one, and we will get back to our regularly scheduled program once I return! Thanks, Chris F.
Bet you haven’t been robbed like this!
I was checking my lesser-used email accounts, and turns out an old WoW account had it’s password changed around 5am this morning. I hadn’t used the account in a long time. In fact, I cleaned out the account before I let it go dormant. There was no gear, no cash, nada. Sure enough, my 70…
Gmail is messed up
Lately I have had a ton of weird stuff going on with my loveable Gmail account. It all started with me getting weird emails about a “new” account I set up (although I didn’t). These messages started arriving with services I had signed up to (which I didn’t) from an email address I don’t own…
What’s With the BoP?
I hope that image didn’t burn your eyes out. I am wearing sunglasses. As mentioned I am back playing WoW. My year long hiatus from the game (despite a brief respite to check out the DK starting area) while mucking around in various other MMO’s and SP games wasn’t ended because I missed the game…
Six Shooter Screenshots are Serious Business
Tagged by good friend Tesh over at Tish Tosh Tesh, us periphery folks are now part of the fun. Like Tesh, I’m not going to follow the format as directly. Unlike Tesh, I don’t keep a lot of my screenshots so finding any was quite the effort. I have two problems with screenshots – I…
Canada is Finally #1 at something besides Hockey..
I hate apologizing for lack of writing the past couple of weeks, truth be told I am so swamped with work .You can see this here .Which is a good thing in today’s economic climate I suppose. Also, while reading a lot of other blogs I just haven’t had anything to add to the conversations…
iBlog part 3
I apologize for not updating last week. It was partly because I was swamped while away on business, but also because I didn’t have anything of note to write about. One thing for certain is how incredible the drop in views and reads are when you don’t post. Justifiably so. This is the third post…
Friday Ramblings.
I know it’s not Friday. I was sitting at my computer this morning thinking “hey! It’s Friday!” and it took me a while to realize it isn’t. I have a feeling today will be a long day.
My Favorite Fantasy Classes
This is a fluff post. Nothing to do with game design but I was just reminiscing about my different character classes over the years and which ones stood out. It is in chronological order, not ranked by preference.
Introduce a New Phase in the Development Cycle
Zubon over at Kill Ten Rats made a generic post that is an ultimate truth with MMOs. We all accept and are resigned to the fact that when an MMO launches it will be incomplete and buggy, and we will have to fight through the launch of a game with Rose Coloured Glasses until such…
Cable Subscription VS MMO Subscription – Death Match!
Often I read people critical of the MMO subscription model on blogs and forums, and inevitably someone will chime in with the counterargument “I pay for my cable every month, and I don’t complain if I don’t watch that much tv”. The similarity of course is that both are a flat monthly fee for unlimited…